A closing device, which comprises a closing element pressed into the seating bore of a housing, has already been disclosed by DE 44 39 059 A1. The closing element assumes the function of a calking punch, so that it has to be made correspondingly solid and extremely precise in terms of its surface contour, in order on the one hand to transmit the high inward pressing force acting on the housing and on the other to ensure the required tightness of the closing element in the seating bore on completion of the calking operation.
The object of the present invention, therefore, is to improve a closing device of the aforementioned type in such a way that said disadvantages are avoided, in order to allow a closing element of the simplest possible construction to be fixed in the seating bore of a housing whilst applying the minimum possible force by means of a comparatively simple and yet reliable fluid-tight calking operation.
This object is achieved, for a closing device manufactured by applying a calking punch to a centering cone face at an outer edge of a seating bore, self-centering the calking punch on the centering cone face for a concentric alignment of the calking punch in the direction of the seating bore, penetrating the calking punch into the housing material and displacing the housing material towards a flange provided on the circumference of the closing element, and terminating the feeding movement of the calking punch in the direction of the seating bore when a defined calking force or a structurally defined limit position of the calking punch in the seating bore is reached.